Hello all, I started gathering bamboo for this last spring and then started getting carried away. My wife and myself spent 3 weeks in Tahiti for our honeymoon and can't get it out of my head. Love the whole feel and look of primitive buildings. I used elephant grass for the roofing and 3 types of bamboo for the structure. Tre Gai as the corner posts (viet nam) Guadua for the main beam 19' (Columbia) and Moso from Mississippi for the rest of kiln dried boo I needed. Please enjoy the photos and visit the blog if you are interested in building with bamboo structures. www.tikirancher.blogspot.com

On 2012-03-27 10:50, tikirancher wrote:Thanks, its been a long labor of love....will be done before memorial day for my inaugural tiki bar launch pig roast...too bad you live so far away I'd make you a fog cutter.
cheers

Thanks for all the great encouragement! as far as the waterproof question you are very observant or you've worked with thatch before. In reality I was told I needed to overlap every 6 inches to insure a waterproof structure, but that would of doubled my cost and I'm not living in the barn. So, budgetary reasons I did it every 12 inches. but it rained the other day and the roof held up great, dry underneath. I'm going to waterproof the thatch and that will help too. The kids loft was the main reason I started this project as a playhouse for my 4 yr old, but I tend to go overboard when it comes to things like this so, I decided to make it a family playhouse that I could use too...wait until you see all the props and bar I'm going to build when its dried in. Does anyone have any suggestions for the wall materials? I was going to use the woven leaf, I forget what its called but it is what ya'll usually put directly on the wall of a room but I have the outside and inside to consider. I was thinking of glueing the weaved material onto a 1/4 ply both sides? I tried to use a reed fence material from Home Depot but it was too see through. I have about 4k into this project so far and am trying to keep total build under 5k.